Fatphobia: The stigma of being fat

While many countries experience rising obesity levels, those who

are overweight struggle with fatphobia. Here, Ellen Murray describes
her own experiences.
I’ve been overweight for as long as I can remember. Even during
my pre-school years, I felt a sense of shame about it. It wasn’t that
people were unkind or critical. But my mum, who is also fat, was
constantly stressing about her own looks and self-worth, so I became
aware that she considered being fat undesirable. The school I attended
had a strict anti-bullying policy, so nobody was mean or rude, but in
some ways, that was worse. Since nobody ever stated out loud that I
was fatter than the other kids, I felt as if people were tiptoeing around
me rather than accepting who I was.
Since then, I’ve experienced all manner of horrible treatment. I
frequently get jeered on public transport by people telling me I should
pay extra. I don’t let that get to me anymore. What concerns me these
days is that people have such unhealthy attitudes to weight. A friend
of mine turned to drugs because she was so stressed about being fat.
She got really thin, and all anyone said was how great she looked.
They paid no attention to what she was going through. That’s
something we really need to change.
There’s also a lot of discrimination in medicine towards fat people.
When seeking medical help, they invariably have to endure a lecture
about how their weight impacts their health. According to research, if
a fat person and a thin one see a doctor with the same complaint, the
slim one is more likely to be tested and treated, while the fat one is
fobbed off with instructions to change their diet and get fit. They have
to be demanding and rude to get the treatment they deserve. More
often than not, though, they avoid seeking medical help until the
problem worsens.
 The increasing number of overweight people in the world is
generally considered to be a problem. There is a movement of people
who say that being overweight is not necessarily a problem at all: fat
people can be just as healthy as those of a so-called ‘ideal’ weight.
While I don’t feel in a position to say whether that’s true, I do worry
that overweight people are considered a problem to be solved. It
seems to give people the right to judge us as substandard. If it were a
racial or sex issue, this kind of stigma wouldn’t be allowed.
People make assumptions about fat people all the time. We are
allegedly lazy, undisciplined and undesirable. The opinions of
strangers don’t bother me, but these preconceptions persist even
among people who know each other well. A friend of mine lost a lot
of weight and soon afterwards received two promotions at work. She
was congratulated on how well her work had improved. She couldn’t
believe it, as she’d always given the company her all.
The stigma endured by fat people is more harmful than any medical
conditions they may suffer from, and it’s important to keep in mind
that being heavy can be a result of poor health as well as a cause of it.
There’s even growing evidence that these attitudes increase obesity.
They certainly create mental health issues. Only by presenting
overweight people in a positive light can this trend be overturned, and
both the attitudes of fat and slim people must be addressed. All
industries, including media, fashion, food, and medicine, should play a
part in creating change.